The invention relates to systems for routing telephone calls and more particularly to a system for automatic direct routing of telephone calls from customers to the nearest or best provider of desired goods or services.
Organizations who advertise products or services are faced with the dilemma of how to direct connect those who have need of the advertiser's product or service and those who can provide the advertiser's product or service, while at the same time ensuring that the caller can be serviced from within the provider's designated territory of interest.
There is a well-recognized need for a system that can directly route a customer's call to a provider of the advertiser's product in whose territorial limits the call originates, and do so by providing the caller with a direct connection to the provider, without human intervention after dialing, and without need of a computer to redial and place the call. Many previous inventions have addressed the issue of call routing, but each of these involve either human intervention after the call is placed (either by the caller or by an operator at a remote location) or a computer-initiated redial of that call. Systems that require input by either an operator, the caller after the call is placed or a computer before the call is dispatched to the final destination are termed interactive systems.
One example of an interactive system in the prior art is U.S. Pat. No. 4,757,267 by Riskin, dated Jul. 12, 1988. Riskin describes a system whereby a caller and an operator or computer interact to determine one of several possible locations to which the call can be routed. An inbound call is matched to a database. If the number from which the caller is calling matches a number in the database, the computer initiates a second call to a nearby provider. If that phone is busy, the computer redials to an alternate location closest to the first. If there is no answer at the second location, the computer dials a third location, which is the closest to the second. Processing time for the computer under this system is slow due to the number of areas and steps required in the process, to wit:
1. The computer must compute the distance between the caller and the first provider; PA1 2. An outbound call is placed by the computer to the provider; PA1 3. If no connection is made, step 1 is repeated for an alternate location; PA1 4. Step 2 is repeated; PA1 5. If no connection is made, steps 1 and 2 are repeated for a second alternate location; PA1 6. If no provider is available, an operator intervenes and prompts the caller for information, allowing the operator to select from several possible locations to which the outbound call can be placed; and PA1 7. If the caller does not use a touch-tone phone, step 6, that is, the intervening of an operator, is required in all cases,
If the amount of computer interaction could be reduced by causing the call to be direct-routed, without an outbound call, to the proper location, processing time would be greatly reduced.
If the call could be direct-routed (not redialed) to the proper location when the call first reaches the Carrier Routing Center (CRC), the CRC would be able to handle far more calls with a much higher degree of accuracy (100% of calls direct routed to the proper location on the first and only attempt).
If human interaction could be eliminated, fewer errors in call routing would occur, and the amount of time required to dispatch a call would be greatly reduced.
The foregoing patent also requires that the caller dial from a "touch-tone" telephone in order to identify the caller's number and redial the computer. Many areas of the United States and other countries use rotary telephones. With the foregoing patent, callers who only have access to rotary telephone service are required to interact with the operator. With other systems, those calling from rotary telephone services are unable to be connected to the destination.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,614,328 by McNaughton, et al. dated Oct. 19, 1971, describes another interactive system, whereby the caller is prompted to dial additional numbers after the initial call is made. The foregoing system does not provide direct and immediate connection to the provider in which the call has originated.
Remote Call Forwarding (RCF) does not provide the same service as does this invention, for RCF only identifies to where a call is to be routed. RCF does not have the ability to identify geographic proximity to the provider, nor whether the call originated from within a provider's territory.
Certainly there are a great many advertisers who use single telephone numbers, such as "1-800" numbers, in their national or regionalized advertising, without benefit of direct call routing. These advertisers must do one of two things:
1. Employ various types of service bureaus (or themselves) to identify a caller (and the caller's location) and provide the caller with the telephone number and/or location of the closest provider of the advertiser's product; or
2. Employ various types of service bureaus (or their own personnel) to identify the caller (and caller's location) and forward the caller's information to the appropriate provider.
If the caller does not place the call to the number provided, or if the integrity of the caller's information is corrupted enroute to the provider, all potential effects of the call are negated.
In the prior art no system exists that allows a caller to place a call to an advertiser's national or regional telephone number and be immediately connected to the provider closest to the caller, in whose territory the call originated, and in the provider's designated area of interest.
Further, there also does not exist a system that can provide direct routing information to a Long Distance Carrier (LDC), or other telephone carrier based on a wide variety of territorial criteria as may be established by various advertisers. Even further, there also does not exist a system that direct-connects the caller to the final location with a single "inbound" call.
The present invention, unlike the Riskin patent, does not require a second routing means but rather direct-connects the caller to the appropriate location after the caller has dialed a single regionally or nationally advertised telephone number (a "1-800" number, for example), with no further calls being initiated, whether by a human operator or by a computer. This invention works in conjunction with, and is an enhancement to, current services provided by the telephone carriers. The scope of the invention is of sufficient breadth and flexibility to accommodate future technological advances by the telephone carriers, such as cellular phone location identification by LORAN, for example.